Tag Archives: Category: Global

Washington Post: “With little more than two months to go before Britain’s first same-sex marriage, the College of Bishops issued a statement saying that ‘no change’ to the Church of England’s teaching on marriage is proposed or envisioned. The statement came after an all-day meeting at Church House in central London Monday (Jan. 27) attended by 90 bishops and eight women participant observers.”

TheJournal.ie: “The Association of Catholic Priests strongly criticised the Minister for Education’s suggestion after he said that religious teaching should take place within homes and parishes, rather than being the responsibility of schools.”

The Globe and Mail: “Canada’s ambassador for religious freedom is warning that the Ukrainian government is persecuting a particular group of Catholics as the political crises grows in the European country.”

The Asahi Shimbun: “A senior Chinese official called for stricter management of religious activities, state media said on Jan. 27, following explosions in China’s western region of Xinjiang which authorities say were masterminded by a religious militant.”

Civil.ge: “Apart of the Georgian Orthodox Church, funding from the state budget will also become available for four more religious groups in Georgia – Diocese of the Armenian Apostolic Church in Georgia, Muslim groups, Roman Catholic Church in Georgia and Jewish groups, PM Irakli Garibashvili said.”

Free Malaysia Today: “A City Parish church supervisor has called on the police to speed up their investigations and put an end on the current spate of attacks on churches in Penang. John David said the Molotov cocktail attack on the Church of Assumption in Lebuh Farquahar here early today was a threat to racial and religious harmony in the country.”

Zee, Machteld, Five Options for the Relationship between the State and Sharia Councils: Untangling the Debate on Sharia Councils and Women’s Rights in the United Kingdom (January 15, 2014). Journal of Religion and Society, Volume 16 (2014). Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=2380066

Fox News: “Saeed Abedini, an American citizen imprisoned in Iran for practicing his Christian faith, has been moved from a murderers’ ward to one reserved for political prisoners, a slight improvement his supporters say is the first positive sign in …

Digital Journal: “A Swedish midwife has reported her former employers for religious discrimination, after she would not assist with abortions at a hospital in southern Sweden. She claims they discriminated when they would not extend her contract.”

Daily Times: “The participants of a panel discussion with provincial leadership of political parties stressed the need of implementing constitutional and international guarantees protecting the rights of religious minorities in Pakistan.”

RFI: “Pope Francis is expected to raise planned changes to French law on abortion and euthanasia when President François Hollande meets him at the Vatican on Friday. An improvised bomb went off near a French church in Rome overnight.”

The Tico Times: “The four highest polling candidates in Costa Rica’s presidential race have all stated they would expand benefits to gay couples, including property rights, though none have openly supported same-sex marriages.”

Telegraph: “Thousands of Malaysians are backing a campaign for the release of a Muslim couple after they were arrested in Sweden for allegedly smacking their 12-year-old son’s hand when he refused to pray.”

Michael Brendan Dougherty at The Week: “And yet the Western world is largely ignorant of or untroubled by programmatic violence against Christians. Ed West, citing the French philosopher Regis Debray, distils the problem thusly: ‘The victims are “too Christian” to excite the Left, and “too foreign” to excite the Right.’”

National Secular Society: “Cornwall County Council is under fire for considering the removal of subsidies for transport of pupils to religious schools. The Council, which like others around the country is struggling with reduced budgets, estimates it must reduce its school transport bill by £12 million.”

Reuters: “The U.S. Supreme Court denied a stay of execution for Mexican national Edgar Tamayo on Wednesday, allowing Texas to put to death the convicted killer who is also at the center of a diplomatic dispute.”

The Tunis Times: “The debate over the role of religion in the constitution has ignited an ideologically-heated dispute between the secularists and the Islamists. Ultimately, the two sides of the conflict, whether public or parliamentary, argued that Article 6 – the heart of this debate- should be worded otherwise to maintain balance. The article guarantees freedom of belief and conscience and the free exercise of religion and bans apostasy and incitement on violence.”

Ecumenical News: “The head of the Russian Orthodox Church says security and religious freedom of Christians in the Middle East must be ensured along with the security and religious freedom of the other citizens in Syrian society.”

Malay Mail: “A High Court here has frozen all action on a 26-acre land held by a Chinese-owned developer firm, before it decides on reviewing the allegedly unconstitutional compulsory takeover attempt by Selangor’s religious authorities.”

France24: “French lawmakers voted late on Tuesday to amend the country’s abortion law to make it easier for women to terminate a pregnancy if she chooses to, despite opposition from the country’s more conservative political parties.”

Minivan News: “‘The bill containing some provisions that are contrary to Islamic Shariah and Islamic principles was among the reasons considered for returning the bill,’ the President’s Office stated.” Via Religion Clause.

Cristina Odone at The New Statesman: “But with only 24 hours to go before the conference, managers at the QEII centre told Christian Concern that the subject it planned to discuss was ‘inappropriate.’ The booking was cancelled. When challenged, the QEII centre’s chief executive, Ernest Vincent, cited its diversity policy as reason for the cancellation. A journalist asked for a copy of the diversity policy. The centre refused to provide it.”

A communication from the Executive Director of Comunidad y Justicia in Chile: “After many months we were able to overturn a decision made by our Health Department regarding the distribution of the plan-B pill to minors under 14 years of age without any notification to parents.”

The Edmonton Journal: “Parishioners at historic McDougall United Church want the city to buy their building and rent it back to them for $1 because they can’t afford repairs worth at least $8 million.”

Weekly Standard: “The young state of Kosovo—with an Albanian majority of more than 90 percent, of whom 80 percent are Muslim—declared its independence in 2008, but now faces a ‘risk from extremist religious currents, which requires . . . counter-measures at a strategic level.’ Further, Kosovar Albanians have an agenda for a return of their people and culture to Europe, not an orientation toward the Middle East.”

The Malaysian Insider: “Malay rights group Perkasa wants two lawyers investigated for treason over their statements that non-Muslims are not bound by religious edicts (fatwa) issued by state rulers or the National Fatwa Council on issues concerning Islam.”

Hindustan Times: “The Union Cabinet on Monday agreed to grant the Jain community — followers of an ancient faith often confused to be a sect of Hinduism — the status of a ‘national minority.’ This fulfills a long-standing demand by the 7-million-strong community that has sought to maintain its religious and cultural identity.”

Helsinki Times: “Under the Finnish legislation, the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland and the Orthodox Church of Finland are in a privileged position. Both churches are defined as public corporations and thus part of the public administration.”

Filip Mazurczak at First Things: “In Hungary, Croatia, and elsewhere in Eastern Europe, a pro-family, pro-life revolution and a rediscovery of Christian roots is occurring. While few in the American media have noticed, this trend should challenge those who simply lament Europe’s moral malaise. Unnoticed in the shadow of a secularized west, religion’s public role has been growing in the east since the collapse of communism.”

The Globe and Mail: “Fatima Houda-Pepin was forced out of the Liberal caucus after insisting that certain public-sector employees, such as police officers, judges, prosecutors and correctional officers, should be barred from wearing religious symbols as a means to ensure state neutrality.”

RFI: “A court in France ruled against the withdrawal of food and water from Vincent Lambert, a tetraplegic patient who has been in a state of minimal consciousness in hospital for five years, following a car accident.”

Reuters: “[Sultan Abdul Halim Mu'adzam] gave his backing on Sunday to a court ruling barring non-Muslims from using the word Allah to refer to God, weighing in for the first time on an issue that has fanned religious tensions in the multi-cultural country.”

Washington Times: “Responding to a question from an Olympics volunteer during a visit in the Black Sea resort city, Putin vowed that gays face no discrimination in Russia and could feel ‘at ease.’ But he emphasized that because of the new Russian law, they cannot express their views on gay rights issues to anyone under age.”

Washington Times: “Voters overwhelmingly supported Egypt’s military-backed constitution in a two-day election, with 98.1 percent supporting it in the first vote since a coup toppled the country’s president, the election commission said Saturday.”

Christian Post: “Christians in the United Kingdom challenged the idea that homosexuality is innate and immutable, opposing a ban on all Sexual Orientation Change Efforts – referred to by detractors as ‘gay-to-straight therapy.’ They organized a conference this week to discuss the issue and allowed the author of the SOCE ban bill to speak.”

EuroNews: “Most of the European Parliament’s political groups are demanding the Spanish government abandon plans for more-restrictive abortion laws. However, Parliament’s centre-right European People’s Party says this should be a decision made by Spain’s national government.”

Deutsche Welle: “This week, a medical advisory board recommended that emergency contraception should be available without a prescription in Germany, as it is in other countries. But there are ethical concerns.”

LA Times: “The International Olympic Committee official who supervised the 2006 Winter Games in Turin, Italy, criticized the United States on Wednesday for including openly gay athletes in its official delegation to Sochi, Russia, next month.”

The Globe and Mail: “Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s newest choice for the Supreme Court of Canada ran into a wall of skepticism at a hearing into the federal government’s interpretation of the law governing appointments. In a case with no precedent in the Supreme Court’s 139-year history, seven judges were put in the extraordinary position of having to judge a prospective new member, Justice Marc Nadon, a 64-year-old judge with a conservative bent.”

The following quote may be attributed to Alliance Defending Freedom Senior Counsel Brett Harvey regarding the Supreme Court of Canada’s decision Thursday to review a decision by the British Columbia Court of Appeal in Carter v. Attorney General of Canada that fully upheld Canada’s laws against doctor-prescribed death:

U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) Press Release: “The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) today urged the U.S. government to emphasize the plight of religious minorities and the protection of religious freedom for all Syrians during the upcoming Geneva II peace conference, scheduled to begin on January 22nd. USCIRF increasingly has become concerned about the sectarian nature of the Syrian conflict which poses a growing danger to the religious freedoms of all Syrians, and how the potential spillover jeopardizes religious freedom regionally.”

Euro News: “A Judiciary Committee has rejected calls for extra hearings before sending Belgium’s Child Euthanasia Bill for a final parliamentary vote. The decision clears the way for it to be passed to the lower house for consideration and a vote sometime before May.”

Associated Press: “The new document would ban political parties based on religion, give women equal rights and protect the status of minority Christians. It also gives the military special powers to name its own candidate as defense minister for the next eight years and bring civilians before military tribunals.”

The Independent: “The illegal abortion of female foetuses solely to ensure that families have sons is widely practised within some ethnic communities in Britain and has resulted in significant shortfalls in the proportion of girls, according to an investigation by The Independent.”

Washington Post: “It’s been three months since the Rev. Suzan Johnson Cook resigned as the State Department’s religious freedom watchdog, and those who decry religious persecution in Syria, Sudan and elsewhere are wondering how long it’s going to take the White House to name a new ambassador-at-large for international religious freedom.”

Wall Street Journal: “A Myanmar politician said this week that he was preparing to seek legal limits on interfaith and interethnic marriage, specifically targeting Chinese and Muslim minority groups and underscoring how ethnic and religious tensions still run deep in the Southeast Asian country.”

Washington Times: “American journalist David Satter has been kicked out of Russia, raising questions about whether the former Moscow correspondent for the Financial Times was expelled in retribution for his criticism of President Vladimir Putin in the run-up to the Olympic Games, CNN reported.”

Associated Press: “A Chinese court on Tuesday convicted a doctor of baby trafficking and sentenced her to death with a two-year reprieve, after she admitted in court that she stole babies from the hospital where she worked and sold them.”

Z News: “Khan, a staunch votary of quota for minorities, said a ‘new tendency is emerging to interpret the Constitution in such a way to deny the legitimate rights of religious minorities as based on religion.’”

Fox News: “Egyptians began voting Tuesday on a draft for their country’s next constitution, a vision for the nation’s future and a milestone in a military-backed roadmap put in place after Mohammed Morsi was overthrown in a coup last July.”

Kevin D. Williamson at National Review: “Of course it doesn’t help that homeschooling is associated in the public mind with a particular strain of evangelical Christianity, as in the case of the Romeike family. It is distasteful, but it should not be a surprise that the Obama administration has no objection to the political and religious suppression of such unruly Christians — the Obama administration is doing the same thing to the Little Sisters of the Poor and other Christian groups that it finds inconvenient.”

Global Post: “A young Muslim man in Mauritania is facing a possible death sentence after being convicted of apostasy and jailed for having written an article criticising the prophet Mohammed, a judicial source said Monday.”

WORLD Mag: “Wu Yongyuan wants his government to pay up. Chinese officials owe his family compensation, he says, for forcing his wife to submit to an abortion while she was seven months pregnant, subsequently ruining her mental health. After the traumatic abortion in 2011, she became violent and was diagnosed with schizophrenia.”

CBC News: “A judge says a discrimination complaint filed by a transgender teacher who was fired from a Catholic school district for religious reasons should be heard by an Alberta human rights tribunal.”

Scottish Express: “Scottish Government ministers intend to legalise gay marriage and are demanding that the curriculum should reflect the change in the law. And they are about to issue guidelines for schools which could see Catholic schools forced to teach pupils about the issue. Ministers also believe every pupil should learn about local sex clinics where they can get contraception and tests for sexually transmitted diseases.”

National Post: “York University appears to be standing by its controversial decision to permit a student to be excused from a group project because the presence of women interfered with his ‘firm religious beliefs.’”

Malaysian Insider: “The leave application for the ‘Allah’ case to be heard by the Federal Court does not warrant a full bench, said Chief Justice Tun Arifin Zakaria. Speaking to reporters after the launch of Legal Year 2014 at the Palace of Justice today, Ariffin said that the leave application will be heard by a five-member bench.”

The Fire: In two previous Torch entries on Professor John McAdams’s fight to keep his tenure at Marquette University, I’ve focused on Marquette’s abuses of McAdams’s due process rightsand the subversions of basic free speech principles it has used first to justify his suspension, and then to justify its aim of revoking his tenure.

The Telegraph: Discrimination against Christians is being “ignored” by governments and courts, MPs from across Europe have warned in the wake of a string of cases involving the rights of British workers to wear crosses or discuss their beliefs.